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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 120 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  2. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  3. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  7. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. The ball is in your ________________.
  10. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  11. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  12. Did you ________________ the meat?
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  16. I'll be taking the ________________.
  17. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  18. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  19. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  22. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. tube — in a tire
  2. wound — an injury
  3. season — in sport
  4. wound — an injury
  5. bat — the animal
  6. fork — a garden tool
  7. row — a line
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. court — for sport
  10. court — of a king
  11. drill — army training
  12. season — to add flavour
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. court — of law
  15. tube — a container
  16. tube — the underground
  17. drill — a practice
  18. fork — in a road
  19. fork — to eat with
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. drill — the tool
  22. season — of the year
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. row — to paddle

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com